Unions and employers organisations have presented their plans for compulsory disability insurance for freelancers and the self-employed to social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees.

The plan, first leaked to the Financieele Dagblad last week, would see freelancers paying between €85 and €150 a month for the insurance policy, which would guarantee them a maximum €1,650 a month in income after a year of being off sick.

Premiums would be lower or higher depending on whether the policy should kick in after six months or two years.

A compulsory insurance policy for freelancers was included in the pensions agreement worked out by ministers, unions and employers organisations last year.

Just one in five self-employed are thought to have signed up for a formal invalidity insurance policy.

The government, which had been keen to see freelancers incorporated into the employee invalidity benefit system, will decide before the summer whether or not to adopt the plan as policy.

Koolmees decribed the plan on Tuesday as a ‘major step’.

Freelance organisations are furious about the plans, saying they have not been properly consulted.